Laster not run­ning for re- elec­tion

Com­mis­sioner to pur­sue vol­un­teer work

Dis­trict 5 Com­mis­sioner Monty Laster has an­nounced he will not run for re-elec­tion this year.

“The things that led me to run for of­fice are the things that I have got­ten away from,” Laster said of his rea­sons for not seek­ing of­fice again.

Laster, a Repub­li­can, said he plans to con­tinue spend­ing time vol­un­teer­ing with county his­tor­i­cal preser­va­tion ef­forts and would be join­ing the Board of Direc­tors of Hands On New­ton, which co­or­di­nates the ef­forts of volun- teers across the county.

In Fe­bru­ary 2004, Laster was ap­pointed by the Board of Com­mis­sion­ers to fill the un­ex­pired term of Billy Strick­land who died at the end of 2003, ac­cord­ing to min­utes from the meet­ing. Laster was then elected to a four-year term in 2005.

“It’s been an honor to serve the cit­i­zens of Dis­trict 5 and all of the cit­i­zens of New­ton County,” Laster said.

In his time on the board, Laster said he was most proud of the work the board did in re­vis­ing county de­vel­op­ment reg­u­la­tions and or­di­nances, at­tract­ing Ge­or­gia Perime­ter Col­lege to the county, see­ing the Spe­cial Pur­pose Lo­cal Op­tion Sales Tax passed and ap­prov­ing the im­pact fee or­di­nance.

Laster said he was also proud of the board’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the New­ton Lead­er­ship Col­lab­o­ra­tive along with the Board of Ed­u­ca­tion, New­ton County Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Author­ity and the may­ors of the county’s mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties.

“That’s some­thing I have be­lieved in,” Laster said. “We re­ally want New­ton County to de­velop, and we need to make plans to­day on how we want New­ton County to look in the fu­ture. We want to pre­serve green space and talk about com­mu­nity de­vel­op­ment nodes.”

Laster said he had been con­tacted by sev­eral in­di­vid­u­als con­tem­plat­ing run­ning for Dis­trict 5 Com­mis­sioner this Novem­ber but knew of no one who had made defi- nite plans to do so.

“I feel com­fort­able that there are some peo­ple more qual­i­fied than I, that live in Dis­trict 5 and that they will step for­ward,” Laster said.